A little groggy after the night bus to Hanoi, we had just one night there before going on our Sinh Cafe tour to Halong Bay. With so many companies offering tours to the area, we knew it was going to be busy but nothing prepared us for the madness that followed on our 3 day/2 night tour.

It started well on our bus to the boat pier. We were talking and joking to a really friendly Vietnamese family who spoke English very well. They were on their holiday from work and were in good spirits but when the bus arrived we were put with another group whom we hadn't met and separated from the people we had been speaking to for 3 hours! The boat, called a 'junk', was clean despite its name and quite homely inside. We were served lunch that was edible but not really very filling, a theme that was to run throughout the tour.

The first stop was at Thien Cun, a large cave lit by lots of multicoloured lights. We appeared to arrive with about 20 other boats meaning that the jetty, walk ways and stairs were really crowded with ruthless Asian tourists. Our guide from the boat stopped us at a viewing platform to give us our only snippets of information for the duration of the tour. The Vietnamese believed that the Bay was created by 2 dragons to help protect Vietnam from invaders. There are 4 sacred animals in the country: The Unicorn, The Dragon, The Pheonix and The Turtle. Our guide said "3 of our animals are made up, they do not exist. So, what do we do when people want to fight us, how do we defend?" I replied "Call in the turtles." He wasn't impressed. The cave was alright but nothing special. It felt like it wasn't really that genuine, for example it had a fountain in it, made up to look like a geyser. Tack.

We spent the rest of the afternoon just cruising around the bay. It was the best part of the trip, sitting on the top of the boat in the afternoon sun with thousands of islands jutting out of the sea all around. Very enjoyable. In the evening we moored up in our overnight stop, along with 15 other boats, and we were allowed to go for a swim, whereupon a jellyfish decided that my leg was a bit too close for comfort. Several painful stings later I was out the water with a lemon on my leg feeling a tad sorry for myself! We had dinner on the boat and retired to our cosy but comfortable cabin for the night.

The next day we decided to get up at 6 to go for a morning kayak ride around a set of the islands. It would've been peaceful and serene were it not for all the boats motoring around everywhere and the local fishing village pumping out some sort of hard-trance music. The itinerary for the trip said we were going to the national park on Cat Ba island by bus, so naturally we were a little suprised when our guide gave us a row for not bringing anything other than flip-flops for the 'trek' through the park. In the end, noone wanted to go on the walk, a decision that was aided by him pointing to the trek destination "up there...." "Where?" "Up there" "hahahaha, you're joking right?" "No" "Oh, I can't even see that far." We later spoke to some people who said that the whole thing was a complete death trap and it would've been pratical suicide to attempt the trek in flip-flops!

Cat Ba town is a beach town without a beach. Our tour group had somehow managed to overbook the hotel we were meant to be staying in and instead we were shoved across the road. The new hotel smelt of fish and featured a permanently wet marble staircase that was a bit of a challenge to get up and down! We walked out to the beach which was pretty busy with Vietnamese holiday-makers. The only 2 westerners there were baking themselves in the sun to a complete cinder! Somehow, our hotel never served up any good sea-food, for which Cat Ba is famous, so after our dinner we went to the restaurant next door for some excellent crab (that you had to pick out of the tank!) As complete novices, we had an excellent time picking all the pieces out!

To travel back to the mainland we were put with yet another group of people on a very crowded boat. It was so full we had to sit out in the sun for 2 hours, and any time we tried to find some shade a crew member came and told us off for making the boat tip over on one side! This boat was 3 floors high and had over 30 people on it! There was no way we were that heavy, especially after all the rubbish food we had been fed! Transferred to yet another group of people, we had lunch at the 'famous' restaurant in Halong City. I think 'infamous' should be on the sign. Enough said. Finally we were bundled into a bus for the trip back to Hanoi.

I'm sure it doesn't take a rocket-scientist to infer from this blog that we didn't think much of the whole experience. We'd only been on 1 other tour in the past 6 months, back in NZ, and we'd avoided them on purpose because you're no longer in control of what you do, how long you spend in certain places, things like that. I think that this trip confirmed our fears, but to visit Halong Bay you have no other choice!

-B